Modern high volume golf club heads, namely drivers, are being designed with little, if any, attention paid to the aerodynamics of the golf club head. This stems in large part from the fact that in the past the aerodynamics of golf club heads were studied and it was found that the aerodynamics of the club head had only minimal impact on the performance of the golf club.
The drivers of today have club head volumes that are often double the volume of the most advanced club heads from just a decade ago. In fact, virtually all modern drivers have club head volumes of at least 400 cc, with a majority having volumes right at the present USGA mandated limit of 460 cc. Still, golf club designers pay little attention to the aerodynamics of these large golf clubs; often instead focusing solely on increasing the club head's resistance to twisting during off-center shots.
The modern race to design golf club heads that greatly resist twisting, meaning that the club heads have large moments of inertia, has led to club heads having very long front-to-back dimensions. The front-to-back dimension of a golf club head, often annotated the FB dimension, is measured from the leading edge of the club face to the furthest back portion of the club head. Currently, in addition to the USGA limit on the club head volume, the USGA limits the front-to-back dimension (FB) to 5 inches and the moment of inertia about a vertical axis passing through the club head's center of gravity (CG), referred to as MOIy, to 5900 g*cm2. One of skill in the art will know the meaning of “center of gravity,” referred to herein as CG, from an entry level course on mechanics. With respect to wood-type golf clubs, which are generally hollow and/or having non-uniform density, the CG is often thought of as the intersection of all the balance points of the club head. In other words, if you balance the head on the face and then on the sole, the intersection of the two imaginary lines passing straight through the balance points would define the point referred to as the CG.
Until just recently the majority of drivers had what is commonly referred to as a “traditional shape” and a 460 cc club head volume. These large volume traditional shape drivers had front-to-back dimensions (FB) of approximately 4.0 inches to 4.3 inches, generally achieving an MOIy in the range of 4000-4600 g*cm2. As golf club designers strove to increase MOIy as much as possible, the FB dimension of drivers started entering the range of 4.3 inches to 5.0 inches. The graph of FIG. 1 shows the FB dimension and MOIy of 83 different club head designs and nicely illustrates that high MOIy values come with large FB dimensions.
While increasing the FB dimension to achieve higher MOIy values is logical, significant adverse effects have been observed in these large FB dimension clubs. One significant adverse effect is a dramatic reduction in club head speed, which appears to have gone unnoticed by many in the industry. The graph of FIG. 2 illustrates player test data with drivers having an FB dimension greater than 3.6 inches. The graph illustrates considerably lower club head speeds for large FB dimension drivers when compared to the club head speeds of drivers having FB dimensions less than 4.4 inches. In fact, a club head speed of 104.6 mph was achieved when swinging a driver having a FB dimension of less than 3.8 inches, while the swing speed dropped over 3% to 101.5 mph when swinging a driver with a FB dimension of slightly less than 4.8 inches.
This significant decrease in club head speed is the result of the increase in aerodynamic drag forces associated with large FB dimension golf club heads. Data obtained during extensive wind tunnel testing shows a strong correlation between club head FB dimension and the aerodynamic drag measured at several critical orientations. First, orientation one is identified in FIG. 11 with a flow arrow labeled as “Air Flow—90°” and is referred to in the graphs of the figures as “lie 90 degree orientation.” This orientation can be thought of as the club head resting on the ground plane (GP) with the shaft axis (SA) at the club head's design lie angle, as seen in FIG. 8. Then a 100 mph wind is directed parallel to the ground plane (GP) directly at the club face (200), as illustrated by the flow arrow labeled “Air Flow—90°” in FIG. 11.
Secondly, orientation two is identified in FIG. 11 with a flow arrow labeled as “Air Flow—60°” and is referred to in the graphs of the figures as “lie 60 degree orientation.” This orientation can be thought of as the club head resting on the ground plane (GP) with the shaft axis (SA) at the club head's design lie angle, as seen in FIG. 8. Then a 100 mph wind is wind is oriented thirty degrees from a vertical plane normal to the face (200) with the wind originating from the heel (116) side of the club head, as illustrated by the flow arrow labeled “Air Flow—60°” in FIG. 11.
Thirdly, orientation three is identified in FIG. 12 with a flow arrow labeled as “Air Flow—Vert.—0°” and is referred to in the graphs of the figures as “vertical 0 degree orientation.” This orientation can be thought of as the club head being oriented upside down with the shaft axis (SA) vertical while being exposed to a horizontal 100 mph wind directed at the heel (116), as illustrated by the flow arrow labeled “Air Flow—Vert.—0°” in FIG. 12. Thus, the air flow is parallel to the vertical plane created by the shaft axis (SA) seen in FIG. 11, blowing from the heel (116) to the toe (118) but with the club head oriented as seen in FIG. 12.
Now referring back to orientation one, namely the orientation identified in FIG. 11 with a flow arrow labeled as “Air Flow—90.” Normalized aerodynamic drag data has been gathered for six different club heads and is illustrated in the graph of FIG. 5. At this point it is important to understand that all of the aerodynamic drag forces mentioned herein, unless otherwise stated, are aerodynamic drag forces normalized to a 120 mph airstream velocity. Thus, the illustrated aerodynamic drag force values are the actual measured drag force at the indicated airstream velocity multiplied by the square of the reference velocity, which is 120 mph, then divided by the square of the actual airstream velocity. Therefore, the normalized aerodynamic drag force plotted in FIG. 5 is the actual measured drag force when subjected to a 100 mph wind at the specified orientation, multiplied by the square of the 120 mph reference velocity, and then divided by the square of the 100 mph actual airstream velocity.
Still referencing FIG. 5, the normalized aerodynamic drag force increases non-linearly from a low of 1.2 lbf with a short 3.8 inch FB dimension club head to a high of 2.65 lbf for a club head having a FB dimension of almost 4.8 inches. The increase in normalized aerodynamic drag force is in excess of 120% as the FB dimension increases slightly less than one inch, contributing to the significant decrease in club head speed previously discussed.
The results are much the same in orientation two, namely the orientation identified in FIG. 11 with a flow arrow labeled as “Air Flow—60.” Again, normalized aerodynamic drag data has been gathered for six different club heads and is illustrated in the graph of FIG. 4. The normalized aerodynamic drag force increases non-linearly from a low of approximately 1.1 lbf with a short 3.8 inch FB dimension club head to a high of approximately 1.9 lbf for a club head having a FB dimension of almost 4.8 inches. The increase in normalized aerodynamic drag force is almost 73% as the FB dimension increases slightly less than one inch, also contributing to the significant decrease in club head speed previously discussed.
Again, the results are much the same in orientation three, namely the orientation identified in FIG. 12 with a flow arrow labeled as “Air Flow—Vert.—0.” Again, normalized aerodynamic drag data has been gathered for several different club heads and is illustrated in the graph of FIG. 3. The normalized aerodynamic drag force increases non-linearly from a low of approximately 1.15 lbf with a short 3.8 inch FB dimension club head to a high of approximately 2.05 lbf for a club head having a FB dimension of almost 4.8 inches. The increase in normalized aerodynamic drag force is in excess of 78% as the FB dimension increases slightly less than one inch, also contributing to the significant decrease in club head speed previously discussed.
Further, the graph of FIG. 6 correlates the player test club head speed data of FIG. 2 with the maximum normalized aerodynamic drag force for each club head from FIG. 3, 4, or 5. Thus, FIG. 6 shows that the club head speed drops from 104.6 mph, when the maximum normalized aerodynamic drag force is only 1.2 lbf, down to 101.5 mph, when the maximum normalized aerodynamic drag force is 2.65 lbf.
The drop in club head speed just described has a significant impact on the speed at which the golf ball leaves the club face after impact and thus the distance that the golf ball travels. In fact, for a club head speed of approximately 100 mph, each 1 mph reduction in club head speed results in approximately a 1% loss in distance. The present golf club head has identified these relationships, the reason for the drop in club head speed associated with long FB dimension clubs, and several ways to reduce the aerodynamic drag force of golf club heads.